Official Languages Committee on Oct. 3rd, 2017

[Yvan Déry]

The definition was not established for the purposes of enumeration, but rather so that a citizen could come before their ministry of education or their school board to say that they are entitled to education in the language of the minority and claim that right. When someone comes before their school board, it is relatively easy to check their background, have a discussion with them and understand their situation.

[Alupa Clarke, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Yes.

[Yvan Déry]

When it comes to enumeration and general population estimates, things get complicated. What we have always thought of as the majority of rights-holders is established based on the mother tongue criterion. You talked about this, and it is in your report. It is relatively simple to check. Statistics Canada is very capable of and adept at checking it. What is more complex are questions we are missing, such as those on the parents' educational background.

[Alupa Clarke, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Yes.

[Yvan Déry]

In addition, a distinction must be made between someone having attended a French immersion school outside Quebec—so an English school where courses are taught in French—and having attended a French school. Obtaining that information through a simple question is already complex.

[Alupa Clarke, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

I can imagine.

[Yvan Déry]

It's relatively simple for someone who comes before their school board, especially since, in most provinces, the majority of school boards will tell a citizen whose mother tongue may be English or an immigrant who is still not a Canadian citizen that the admissions committee has the power to admit them and that the province accepts them. The process is more generous on the ground than what is proposed in section 23 of the charter.

[Alupa Clarke, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

I would like to ask another quick question.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

You have to ask it very quickly.

[Alupa Clarke, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Is the enumeration of rights-holders part of the short-form census, the long-form census or both?

[Jean-Pierre Corbeil]

There is currently no enumeration of rights-holders in the census.

[Alupa Clarke, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Okay.

[Jean-Pierre Corbeil]

The only criterion we can use is in the census short-form questionnaire.

[Alupa Clarke, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you, Mr. Corbeil.

Mr. Arseneault, go ahead.

[René Arseneault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

I have four minutes, right?

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

You have three or four minutes.

[René Arseneault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I will share my time with Mr. Samson.

I would like to go back to the answers given by Mr. Corbeil and Ms. Denis to a question asked by my colleague Linda Lapointe.

I am sure that you receive thousands of suggestions of questions to help you consider several spheres of our society. I would just like to remind Statistics Canada that the enumeration of rights-holders is a constitutional obligation. The enumeration of rights-holders gives us access to data on education. The Supreme Court of Canada told us that this is one of the ways to do that. I know that, indirectly, this is a Statistics Canada responsibility, but the enumeration of rights-holders is an obligation under the charter.

Does Statistics Canada have legal advisers who are looking into those obligations?

[Jean-Pierre Corbeil]

We do have legal advisors.

We are currently creating a working group, an advisory committee. We will ensure to have trained lawyers on the committee. That way, they could inform Statistics Canada and give advice on the best way to word good questions and the appropriate way to answer them.

[René Arseneault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

On that note, I will yield the floor to my friend Mr. Samson, so that he can sleep well tonight.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

My colleague asked a good question.

I am thinking of the architects of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Do you think that the architects of the charter, both at the federal and provincial levels, included, in paragraph 23(1)(a), the notion of “French“ parents, in paragraph 23(1)(b), the notion of parents “who have received ... their instruction” and, in subsection 23(2), the notion of a child who “has received ... instruction” only to cover the first 30 years following the adoption of the charter?

If we are wondering what they had in mind and what their objective was, it seems to me that something must be done quickly.

[Yvan Déry]

As I was saying earlier, section 23 of the charter was drafted to give individuals rights, and not to make the work of Statistics Canada easier.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

I agree with that!

[Linda Lapointe, Liberal, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

It was drafted by lawyers and not by statisticians.